Amid a heated battle over political control and money, disgruntled members of the Building Industry Association of Southern California are poised to leave the trade association and start their own group.

“At this point, they’ve left us no choice,” said Tom DuBose, president of Development Design and Engineering in El Centro.

DuBose was slated to serve as incoming president of the Palm Desert-based Desert Chapter before it was dissolved in late December by BIASC, a home-commercial builder association that relocated this month from Diamond Bar to Irvine.

Historically speaking, BIASC has been an uncle to its six Southern California chapters, making decisions that affect chapters, yet usually keeping its nose out of internal chapter business.

The revocation of the Desert Chapter’s charter puts into question whether certain Baldy View Chapter members will also leave BIASC.

The Rancho Cucamonga-based Baldy View Chapter covers San Bernardino County and portions of east Los Angeles County.

Its members have been closely monitoring the situation ever since tension started boiling over in the fall, according to memos obtained by this newspaper.

Although Baldy View’s membership base is caught in the middle, both politically and geographically, the memos reveal how Baldy View’s president has leaned toward Desert’s arguments.

Baldy View’s CEO wouldn’t comment.

Although DuBose wouldn’t go into detail, he did say certain Baldy View leaders have “voted consistently on the issues as we see them.”

“They’re sympathetic towards us,” DuBose said.

After Desert Chapter was dissolved in December, BIASC merged Desert into the Riverside-based Riverside County Chapter, although a court order is allowing the former Desert staff to operate and serve its members as long as it doesn’t make out-of-the-ordinary expenditures.

If former Desert members leave their new Riverside chapter, they might be able to take their cash reserves and assets with them, which would foil BIASC’s attempt to bolster its ailing bottom line.

BIASC was on track to gain control of Desert’s assets through bylaw changes that its board members passed in November, but a lawsuit filed by Desert has forced BIASC to hit the brakes.

The two sides meet again in court Feb. 19.

The bylaw changes gave BIASC control over its six local chapters’ cash and assets, which are built from local member dues.

DuBose wouldn’t say how much cash Desert was sitting on as of late last year, but did say “it was enough to carry us through this downturn.”

The outcome Desert would like to see from the suit is for BIASC to drop the bylaw changes, or allow the Desert chapter to move out from under BIASC’s umbrella. Even if it moves from beneath the BIASC, Desert still would want the bylaw changes dropped.

Now DuBose and former Desert leaders are pleading their case with a higher power, the National Association of Home Builders, a group representing local chapters across the country at the national level.

NAHB has options, Dubose said. It can stay silent on the issue, mediate a solution out of court, or allow former Desert members to create a chapter that answers solely to NAHB and the California Building Industry Association, which represents local California chapters at the state level.

A spokesman for NAHB wouldn’t comment but e-mailed a response.

“We are still learning the facts ourselves,” it said. “At this time, NAHB’s executive board has tabled any further action until its next meeting.”

However, BIASC is exercising its right to use all available resources to help “the corporation” stay afloat, he says.

At a December BIASC board meeting, two members – one from Baldy View and one from Desert – voted against the resolution to revoke Desert’s charter, but they were outnumbered by 29 votes from sub-chapters, including some from Baldy View representatives.

Desert filed a request for BIASC to reconsider the chapter’s charter revocation, but this was voted down 7-4 in mid-January at an executive committee meeting.

A reconsideration phase would’ve let both sides “take a legal timeout to let members… sit down and try to reach a reasonable conclusion,” DuBose said. “Their denial of reconsideration was a rejection of our offer.”

In its lawsuit, former Desert members argue that BIASC’s move is a money grab because BIASC faces an “uncertain financial future,” according to a statement.

In response to BIASC’s bylaw changes, the statement says that even though local chapters are under BIASC, they’ve operated under a “local governance model” since the 1920s and should continue doing so.

Lambros has said local chapters aren’t as independent as some may think – each chapter, being a part of BIASC, is subject to the whims of the economy and its effect on BIASC, both in good times and bad.

“This isn’t the scenario of a house divided,” Lambros said. “This is a scenario of a minority opinion because the majority of the (BIASC) board is strongly of the same mind.”

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.